2. All edible books must be "bookish" through the integration of text, literary inspiration or, quite simply, the form.

One person deviated from the book aspect by making an edible interpretation of a Barack Obama speech. It won "Best Use of Marshmallow for All Humankind".

Dan ManseauNot to mention Best Use of Chocolate Meltaways.

The winner was constructed by John and Patty Riley of Gabriel Books on Market Street in Northampton. It was of Poetics: Volume . For those of you who haven't read Umberto Eco's In the Name of the Rose, Poetics: Volume 2 is a book mentioned in the story that is eaten by another character.

Dan ManseauThe cover is a piece of lavash bread, the pages are baklava, the binding is fruit leather, the type is licorice and the type base is marzipan.

The other mouth-watering entrants after the jump.

The first book entry was a very loyal interpretation of Good Night Moon baked by Dawn Parker. As we walked away after judging it, Mayor Higgins exposed her extensive background in daycare by quoting the rest of the book from memory.

Dan ManseauIt won "Most True to Inspiration"

Next up won for Best Meaty Pun. It was a take on The Da Vinci Code with The Da Vinci Toad. Apparently, no toad meat was used in the making of it which would have gained it some extra points from me.

Dan ManseauThe Da Vinci Toad

A second entry from The Da Vinci Toad creators won The Laurie Anderson Award for Best Performance Art piece.

Dan Manseau"Grown in Sun the Raisin Dries" is a pun with correct meter of "Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry". How one title inspired the other is the real story.

Next was the Barack Obama speech put to marshmallows shown above. This piece shared a table with "Best Veggie Pun", Catcher in the Rye. Indeed, a well-crafted catcher of squash and bell pepper with a mushroom for a catcher's mitt sitting in a rye bread bowl full of dip.

Dan ManseauAnd look at the detail in the catcher's face mask. That's some kind of paring.

Set in a side room were the next three entries. This one of The History of Buttons was a runner-up for Best in Show. It was whimsy on a platter with all sorts of cakes and candies substituting for the buttons on the book's cover. And the best part was, the creator chose the book because Easthampton is the Button City and her hometown.

Dan ManseauButton! Button! Who ate the button?!

Next up won for Most Immediately Recognizable. A platter of prettily-decorated horse cookies? All the Pretty Horses. The creator, Janet Moulding, said she doesn't bake so she went with the easiest thing she could find.

Dan ManseauAll the Pretty Edible Horses

The next artist had a lot of fun with the recent news stories of memoirists outed as creators of fiction, notably Margaret Seltzer and James Frey. Julie Zuckman created a cake covered in Marshmallow Fluff, surrounded it with Peeps and then wrote in blue gel icing on top, "Fake Cake, Fake Memories." It won for Best Edible Literary Criticism.

Dan ManseauIt may have been the most fake but it was the most quick to be eaten at the gathering after the judging.

From fluff...snuff(ed out). Robin Glenn's tasty In Cold Blood interpretation won for Most Graphic AND Most Subtle Visual. It took a bit of time before you saw the icing blood through the shredded coconut snow - as is often the case.

Dan Manseau"The sheriff was crossing the snow covered wheat field out at the Clutter farm when he came across more disturbing evidence..."

Next it was Green Thoughts as interpreted by Kari Knapp. Kari said she doesn't bake at all, so she created this veggie portrait which won for Most 3D Vegetables.

Dan ManseauHummus Face.

Netta Crombie and her mom Lucy Longstreth crafted the winner of Most Multi Purpose Frosting Use as well as Cutest Mouse for Who Moved My Cheese?

Dan ManseauMarble cake swiss cheese...a winner every time.

The next entry was Water for Elephants created by the Fairway Village Book Club. The ladies said they picked that book because they all loved it. The creator of the elephants said if you're going to bake elephants, start it now...good advice for us all.

Kelsey FlynnA popular entry at the eating portion of the evening.

Next it was a tip o' the cake to The Golden Compass. The duo responsible for this one said the symbols for the compass weren't chocolate but candy melts that they designed freehand. Therefore they won Well Crafted AND Best Ornamental Candy Melts.

Dan ManseauMmmm. Candy meltilicious.

The last book on this table won for Best Mixed Media of course. How Green Was My Valley incorporated broccoli, babka, olives, and colored creamed cheese. Judge Dan Kelm thought it would make a nice base for a lamp.

Dan ManseauIt's also an awesome prop for somebody's train set.

Rounding out the final two were a sheet cake that won for Best Illustration Frosting for Into the Wild (the one about cats, not starvation in the Alaskan wilderness) and an outstanding sculpture in cookie for Audubon's Birds of America that won...Outstanding Sculpture.

Dan ManseauWe also decided this one won Most Likely to Pass for Sculpture in Our Living Rooms.

And there you have them - all the entries for the Second Annual Edible Book Contest to benefit Lilly and Forbes Library. Bonnie Burnham, organizer of the event and a library trustee, commented that they doubled the entrants from last year and had over 75 attendants at the event. As I walked away from Lilly, I heard some spectators start hatching plans for next year, "Lord of the Rings...as a bundt cake!"